Summer Projects - Crochet - Part Two

Here is the final installment of my summer projects. These are some of the crochet ones I finished before summer was over. I actually wrote this post several weeks ago but I've been waiting on a photo. Be advised, this is a bit long but lots of photos.

First, a baby gift for a dear friend we very much miss but are extremely excited for her third little boy to join their family. The first set of items is to endear him to his brothers. It's totally frivolous but sometimes those are my favorite gifts.

Batman theme with a baby-ish twist:

Then a more practical item, too.

Then another baby gift for a friend I went to high school with who is expecting her first little one, also a boy. I did follow a pattern for the hat but the shoe one is all my own.

 
Another baby item. This was actually the first of my completed summer projects. This post has been delayed because I was waiting on this photo. My super sweetheart husband was able to retrieve it from the hard drive from my school laptop that crashed. I was amazed he was able to retrieve it but he's pretty amazing that way. This baby afghan will always have a special place in my heart because I worked on it while I was still in school and often in-between patients during my clinical rotations. The baby it was made for used it in the hospital and as his going home blanket. I was so happy it was so well received and is already a treasure in this baby's life.

Another baby ensemble. This was for my dear friend over at A Year with Mom and Dad. It has been so wonderful getting to know her these past couple years. I was truly over-joyed when she told me she was expecting and tickled when she emailed me from the hospital while she was in labor and then gave birth less than an hour after we "chatted" via email. I truly adore her and am honored to call her my friend. 

Next item, a super simple pattern shawl. I ended up making two, one in this lovely shade of blue and the other in a purple. Two different types of yarn which gave them each a distinct look, too.

The purple...

Next, a going away gift for an employee at work. She and I were the only ones who used to chat Star Trek. Aside from T Rex Dad, few other folks can keep up with me in the Sci-Fi realm. So, for any of those who do know Star Trek, you'll know who this is:

 
At the request of my little girl, I made this poncho and hat. She asked for a pink hat with cat ears so she could be a pink cat. Really, she actually gives me some of my best project ideas. Honestly, I am surprised she did not ask for the hat to have a crown so she could be a pink princess cat but maybe next year. I'll post more photos of her modeling the ensemble on her blog. For now, here is the completed project. Cold days can now come since her hat is ready. (I need to start on T Rex's hat set - he wants a Captain America winter hat set.)

Another Lil Sister inspired item - Tinkerbell slippers. (Can you tell how much I love crafting for my little girl?) Oh, and the Tinkerbell pants she wearing were also home crafted. I put anti-skid on the bottoms so she would not run around a corner and slip.

 

Lastly, a surprise for Lil Sis - she usually tells me what to craft. In this case I was actually able to surprise her with a homemade something. She saw a sock monkey soft luvie at the store. I have to admit, it was cute but if I can make something, I try to do so rather than buying it. Now, I have to say that mine was not as soft or cuddly as the store's but she loves it and calls it "soft monkey with red hair". And yes, she woke up with it sitting on her pillow waiting for her. Oh, and the pattern is mine, too. 

I'd love to share the patterns I've made up but as my mom says I craft by the seat of my pants much like her mother used to. Hence, it's tough to reproduce exactly two things. Most of my originals are truly one of a kind.

Wait until you see what is in the que for the fall/winter projects. With the holidays and birthdays coming up there are lots of things to show off. Just not yet...

(P.S. In case you may be curious, a certain sweet little guy requested a Hulk so you can probably guess what I'm currently working on.)

Bikes...

Grandma and Grandpa declared it was time for the kids, specifically their little guy T Rex, to have a bike. Grandpa N found a little bike, fixed it up with training wheels, and prepared to give it to T. However, we knew Lil Sister would not stand for noting having a bike of her own. Therefore, they presented her with a little something of her own.

Enjoy the photos...

Seeing their bikes and immediately jumping on.

T Rex Dad taking his little guy on his first bike ride. He hopped on and never stopped.
 

Grandma and Grandpa N looking on. Our little girl preferred pushing with her feet, although, she pedaled a little, too. 

T Rex allowed his sis a ride on his bike and she loved it, especially getting some assistance from her dad so she could go fast. 

Thank you, G&G - they LOVE their bikes!

Aunt JT's Garden...

Recently, my sister-in-law - JT, invited the kids and myself (T Rex Dad was working) out to her place to pick veggies and collect blackberries. 

I have to admit, I was pretty stingy with the kids with our blackberry bushes. I let them pick a few but ours were so few that I needed every last one to do my jam. Hence, I would often sneaked out at night after they were in bed and collect the berries. I was glad JT had plenty of berries for the kids to pick. So many they were literally falling off the bushes.

It was truly a fun experience for the kids. Thank you, JT. We were glad to keep you company on your anniversary while your sweet heart was out of town. 

I'll tell more via photos...

First we started with the blackberry bushes. Her bushes are much bigger and taller than ours. The kids enjoyed walking under the bushes and picking the ones at their level or lower.

Examining a giant sunflower that had fallen.

Picking some veggies.

Green beans.

Onions.

Carrots.

 

Tomatoes.

Potatoes (yes, we grow them big in Idaho!)

We had stone soup and blackberry pie for dinner sharing all of it with Grandma and Grandpa who brought over a couple of cool surprises. More on that in the next posting...

P.S. This visit was immediately following T Rex's eye appointment were we learned he can now see 20/20 in both eyes with his corrective lenses. Significant improvement from where we started 3 years ago at 20/200 in the left eye and 20/60 in the right. We can now decrease his patching from 2 hours a day to 1 hour every other day. Oh, and no surgery either. He was also a model patient. He totally has the eye examination thing down. We are grateful and happy about the news and proud of our little guy's behavior and compliance with his eye regimen and exam.

Super Hero Invasion...

We've been invaded by Super Heroes.

T Rex is really into super heroes. In fact, he will say, "Hi, I'm T, and I'm really into super heroes." Of course, being the adoring younger sibling, Lil Sis totally gets in on the action, too. Although, she does not have the cool gear that her brother has. She tends to still choose toys in the princess or fairy realm. However, she happily uses whatever is left over to try to keep up with her brother.

Here is a photo of Captain America and "She Cap". Yes, Lil Sis and T Rex came up with the name "She Cap" on their own. He has her use the lid to his sandbox tools as her shield. I think it's perfect actually. 

We originally had plans to go out of town for Labor Day weekend but when we received an invitation to a birthday party with the theme of super heroes, we canceled our plans and planned our costumes - there was no way our son was missing that party. 

I also want to preface something. What my kids have learned of super heroes is almost exclusively through age-appropriate books checked out from the library. They've seen a tiny bit of the 1960's Batman or super hero cartoons but not much in the realistic realm.

T Rex, of course, wanted to be Captain America. We went all out to help him actualize his costume. I was wanting to make his but we found a costume online at a less expensive price than what I could have pulled together. However, after the party it was pretty much trashed from all the fun in the bounce house. Hence, I suppose you get what you pay for.

Lil Sister insisted on being Black Widow the Super Spy. Try as I might to convince her Cat Woman was the way to go, she would not back down. And since we're trying to teach her to be an independent thinking young lady, we opted to not push her into our way of thinking but rather allow her to decide. I did make her costume and it turned out great. Hopefully, no one thinks us crazy for allowing our 2 1/2 year old to wear black vinyl pants. Plus, the utility belt was super fun to make. The kids do not have toy guns so instead of a gun belt I opted for a utility belt. I hung a tape measure on it and she had so much fun going up and measuring things and people. I also styled her hair with gel and the hair dryer for the first time.The costume must have been a hit with the kids at the party because the older girls were all fighting over who was going to help her in the bounce house and down the blow-up slide.

I'll post more photos on their blogs of their costumes so you can get a closer look. Oh, and something I did find interesting - our daughter's waist is 18 inches. Everyone, and I mean everyone, exclaims about her petite build. Let me just say that I am blow away by those Civil War era Southern women who used to have 18 inch waistlines. That would basically be the size of my daughter's waist now and she's a tiny 2 1/2 year old.

T Rex Dad and I dressed up as Lois and Clark. I cannot believe we did not have someone take our picture. T Rex Dad looked great. It was fun to be dressed up at a party and it not be Halloween.

Oh, and in case you were wondering what the gift was we took for the birthday boy, here's my favorite part of it.

Please, feel safer knowing there are Super Heroes protecting us all!

P.S. Yes, last week we all enjoyed the viral gastrointestinal bug but we survived and are happy to have that behind us. Speaking from experience, I understand why the kids insisted on being held and frequently moaned. Hence, we're a bit behind on postings. I'll do catch up this week.

Summer Zoo Outing...

Yes, another zoo posting. What more can I say about the zoo, right?

Well, the kids love going so we go all the time. This was a quick trip - kind of like a walk in the park except we'd stop to see the animals. This particular trip the kids took their animals with them to show the real-life ones. Oh, and they led the tour. We went to only the exhibits they wanted and they were charged with mapping our path. We did not make it to the entire zoo but only the places they wanted. It was quite entertaining actually. Here are some photos:

The chosen animals from home - Bongo the monkey and Beak the Penguin. By the way, both were thrift store purchases that I've had in the closet for years, literally. One recent day T Rex found my secret stash of such items and "rescued them". I could not be upset that he handled the situation in such a charming manner. However, for future reference my secret stash of toys has been relocated to a more secure location.

The kids agreed the penguins would be the first stop.

T Rex children in dino-sized eggs.

The meerkats, my personal favorite.

I like seeing the kids sitting on the tiger. It's been fun watching them progress and grow while the tiger has remained constant. I remember when T Rex was smaller than his sister and sitting on the small tiger. Oh how quickly time passes.

 

Every trip we take to the zoo I attempt a photo of both kids sitting, posed, on the komodo dragon statue. This is the first time ever it has turned pretty decent. Hence, I am using it as September's header to this blog.

This outing was from last week. This week we're laying low as Lil Sister has had a bad gastrointestinal virus. Poor dear vomited at least a dozen times in the past 24 hours. Oh, and her preferred method of doing so was over either mom's or dad's back. Let's just say we've done a lot of laundry and airing out of the house today. So far, the rest of us are still healthy. We've been doing our best to exercise universal precautions (i.e. hand washing). Send us good thoughts that tonight is a better one than last night - we could all use the rest. Besides, we need to get back to the zoo or the aquarium again very soon.

Sibling Moments...

I've mentioned previously how much these two kiddos love each other. They really do. Sometimes I think they are a little too attached or interdependent upon each other. For example, Lil Sister was in trouble recently (very minor trouble) and while she was in time out her brother went into the bathroom and sobbed because he was so sad she was in trouble. Now, I wish she would take her punishments as seriously as he takes her punishments but I guess that's her being a diva toddler.

He takes such good care of his sister. He often helps her get ready for the day. I often have to counsel him to allow her to do some things on her own because she needs to learn to be independent. See how he helps her tie her sandles? Seriously, an amazing big brother. I just don't want him always getting her out of tight spots. She does need to learn to do that for her self.

She adores him right back. She loves to play Cars and Super Heroes just like him. Actually, she often wants to be just like him. For a long while she's insisted on wearing glasses to be like him. The optician at T Rex's ophthalmology office suggested just finding any kind of sunglasses or eye frame and pulling the lenses out. This way she could have glasses like her brother. Indeed it works and she has quite the interesting glasses collection.

I am grateful they have each other. I always wished I had a sibling closer to my age. I was pretty much raised as an only child since there is such a large gap between my siblings and myself. Oh, there were perks to being raised as an only child. I think it was nice but I often wonder what it would have been like. Hence, I am glad these two get to enjoy each other and the companionship, fun, and chaos they bring into each others' lives. 

Summer Projects - Sewing - Part One

I've been promising to post photos of the projects I completed this summer. There are many both sewn or crocheted. We'll do these in installments to prevent one giant posting. Plus, it makes me feel less overwhelmed and I can post on other topics in between.

Here is the first installment with a couple of stories to go along.

First I'll start with some baby shower gifts. We have a couple ladies at work having babies next month. This week is their shower during lunch time and one of them requested a car seat cover. I had actually already made little outfits but after she asked if I could do a cover, I opted to just gift the covers along with the outfits. The cover was pretty easy. I've never made one of these before so I followed an online tutorial. Then T Rex Dad pulled out our old car seat so I could ensure dimensions were correct. Pretty simple project. Of course, I had to make bags to wrap everything up in and coordinating cards, too.

Story to go along with the car seat covers:

The request for the cover came on Friday at noon and the shower is Monday at noon. We had a dinner on Friday night so after the dinner, I dropped off T Rex Dad at home to do some chores and the kids and I headed to Joann's near the house for some fabric. We arrived around 8:15 pm so pushing the bedtime. We went in, found what we wanted (the kids love to help pick out fabric) and then headed to the cutting table. We were 3rd in line. First in line was someone with 12 different types of fabric and very undecided. 

The kids started to get antsy but we kept waiting. The 2nd in line let us skip ahead and we had our stuff cut. We headed to the check out register and found ourselves behind undecided lady again. That was when we noticed her cart was half full of thread. There was a 50% off safe and she decided she needed over 100 spools of thread. I took a deep breath and we waited. Then we waited some more. The kids started to whine loudly but I actually did not mind because I figured it would rush things along. 100+ spools of thread later, the order is totaled. Now the undecided lady starts pulling out coupons. We watch her go through all her printed coupons before she moved to the ones on her phone. At that point, the kids are falling on the ground asking to go to bed. I apologized to the checker and left my stuff at the counter while carrying the kids to the car. As we drove away I saw undecided lady still scrolling through more coupons. We went back the next morning and had a totally pleasant experience without any of us shedding tears.

Alright, here are the photos:

The car seat covers have different materials on each side. Hence, the two views.

First version:

Second version:

Cards made from left over fabric:

Next, the little girl outfits (obviously, both the babies are girls). 

Lil Sister went with me to pick out the fabric. We had a ladies night fabric shopping. I asked her to pick out some lovely fabric for baby girls. She insisted everything be pink. I found some really lovely floral print in blues or yellows or even greens but she vetoed every one - only pink was allowed. Still it was a fun mother daughter outing and I suspect she's going to be crafting for herself very soon. She loves to get down on the floor and trace patterns or assist me with the cutting. Measuring is her favorite, though. The polka dot one or the second one shown was the favorite fabric and Lil Sister had me make a dress for fall out of it. You'll be seeing it at a later time.

Here are the photos:

We'll stop there. These are the most recently completed projects. I'll move backward from henceforth.  

Stay tuned for more and thanks for sharing in my projects...